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Eberl wears a late 1940s to early 1950s rayon jersey dress with a peplum and side zipper accessorized with a saucer hat and seamed nylons. Her 1958 Mercury Monterey is always ready for a road trip or groceries. PHOTO BY RION SANDERS

For Lindy Eberl, stepping out in style means stepping back in time. Whether it’s an exquisitely tailored travel suit from the 1950s, a 1940s day frock or a flapper dress from the 1920s, Eberl is rarely seen in a piece of clothing from this decade. Up in her attic, Eberl has closets and dressers full of antique and vintage clothing. She calls it her “cave of wonders.” Unlike most collectors, she doesn’t just display the pieces — she wears them on a daily basis. “Why have these things if you don’t wear them?” Eberl said, “I love to wear them, live in them and live in the past days of the women that came before me.” Eberl first fell in love with vintage clothing as a teenager when she wore her mother’s wedding suit from the 1950s as a costume for a high school play. “The suit had such style and character,” Eberl said, “I felt different wearing it. After I went to college I needed grown-up clothes, so I shopped for similar pieces because I loved the feel of that piece. Before long I had a closet full of vintage clothes from different eras.” Eberl learned how to spot the authentic from the fake with help from an uncle who owns a vintage clothing store in Colorado. He’s also worked as a vintage clothing appraiser for “Antiques Roadshow.” Little things, like knowing zippers were uncommon in ladies clothing before the 1950s, help her identify what decade each piece was from. She finds her clothes at yard sales, secondhand stores and from estate sales. She admits the hunt is part of the fun. “Vintage clothing doesn’t always look very handsome on the rack, but you put them on and they come to life,” Eberl said. Unlike today’s fashion, vintage clothing is often fragile. Eberl takes great care in preserving them while storing them. She has also learned how to repair the clothing, using patches and stitches the same way they were repaired during that era. Eberl carries her hobby even into her career wear. As a registered nurse for Peace Hospice of Montana, she dons the traditional white uniform dress, white nylons and a white cap. She believes most of her patients prefer to see their nurses in white instead of modern-day scrubs. Not a day goes by without someone saying how much they appreciate her dressing in white like a traditional nurse. “I have a love affair with old clothes; it’s like art to me,” Eberl said. “Whether I’m at work or going to church, I’m wearing a bit of history. I just love the history of women who have gone before me, those who cooked in their kitchens and worked in their gardens. It’s all the secretaries, the nurses and the teachers; it’s their history that is tied to each outfit.”